The production of the world-famous Toblerone will partly shift from Switzerland to Slovakia at the end of next year, maker Mondelez confirmed. The triangular chocolate bars will lose the "Swiss" tag on its packaging in the process.
Monedelez spokeswoman Livia Kolmitz, in an emailed statement, said "From the end of 2023, we'll add a limited Toblerone production in Slovakia." The statement confirmed a report by a popular Swiss broadcaster.
Kolmitz connected the move to strong growth, instead of talking about cost pressures and the high-cost inflation faced by food companies. This also meant the firm would increase capacity at its Swiss production site in Bern.
"Bern is at the heart of the Toblerone story, we'll keep making our best-selling 100-gram bars there," Kolmitz told a popular media house, and hence ruled out job cuts. Mondelez also said that the move will “unlock significant capacity” at the Bern site, which will allow them to "manufacture millions of additional bars," in the future.
Kolmitz, to give an idea of what the new packaging would look like, pointed to the brand’s British website, and said, "We'll relaunch the Toblerone packaging from this summer, saying the brand was 'established in Switzerland'."
Toblerone was launched in 1908 and since the 1990s has been exclusively produced in Switzerland. Swiss labeling rules are strict, and stipulate that chocolates manufactured abroad cannot carry the ‘Switzerland’ tag. Mondelez will thus have to remove this reference. The company also produces its Milka and Suchard chocolates in Slovakia.